Little Bit Of Red
by Lialioya
Summary: "For someone who is seemingly harmless, you put up one hell of a fight." "When a bunch of strange people barge into my house uninvited, I'm going to be a little upset." Lea - formerly known as Dallea - tries to keep her head down as a simple scientist of Midgard. Unfortunately, S.H.I.E.L.D. won't leave her alone that easily. **On temporary hiatus!**
1. An Unknown

**Couldn't fit this in the description, but this is the sequel to 'A Twist Of Fate' set in Thor, but I guess this could be read without it. Just some back story may help.**

**For all of my returning readers, it is wonderful to see you all again! I hope you enjoy this as much as you enjoyed my first, possibly even more.**

**I'll stop rambling and let you get to it!**

**~Lialioya**

* * *

It was times like these when one small dot in a million really mattered.

Especially when that one small little insignificant dot appeared one day without any information on how the hell it did.

Agent Forest was not an agent that anyone would note to be a particularly high-ranking one, just an average coffee-drinker with his feet up on the desk at least ninety percent of the time, leaning back and not even really paying attention to his screen.

Except, of course, if someone walked into his office.

The doorknob rattled, and the rather stout man quickly swung his feet on the floor, picked up his spectacles that lay discarded on the desk and pretended like he had been doing so for the last four hours he had been at work.

Having lots of practice at the routine, the messenger walked into Forest's office, unknowing that the agent had just been slacking.

"Update requested from Agent Coulson," the messenger asked politely, wanting to let the man go back to his hard work as soon as possible.

Agent Forest replied in a monotone voice, the one he always used when some messenger came in to bother him. "Nothing new."

The messenger nodded, turning to leave, except tripping on a side table and spilling all of her letters and papers on his floor. She turned red while bending down to pick them up, and agent Forest was forced to stare even longer at the screen. He squinted at the large map of the United States and connecting countries that showed hundreds of nice green dots, signifying that S.H.I.E.L.D. had all of their information on a file that stated everything from their birth date to the person's favorite color.

Back when he first got the job, Agent Forest used to pull up random files and read them, until he nearly got caught one day, and he realized that some of these people's lives were not interesting enough to write a novel about.

Pulling at the collar of his neck where a tight suit hugged him so tightly it was difficult to breath, he tilted his head to the side, and from the mixture of the angle and his pained expression that included a squint, he caught a flash of red somewhere near Nevada.

He straightened, suddenly wary, but the flash disappeared beneath a carpet of green dots.

The embarrassed messenger left with a click of the door, but Agent Forest was too absorbed for once in his career to relax until he uncovered the mysterious red dot.

Tilting his head once more he saw only a flash, and he tried to grab it with his mouse, but instead clicked on a green dot and opened up the file. Closing the file who belonged to someone name Darcy Lewis, he concentrated even more, his mouse poised over the spot where he saw it.

Another try, and he had finally pulled up the file he was looking for.

He read what little information it offered, which wasn't much.

"The woman's name is Lea Johnston. Birth place, unknown. Parents, unknown. Religion, unknown." He scrolled down, the file only giving key information like her physical features, but most of it was unknown. Forest's sweaty brow creased in thought and worry. How long had he missed this person? He stared at her picture thoughtfully. How had _no one_ found this out yet? It was impossible, yet there it was in front of him.

He noticed a small video file at the bottom, and clicked on it. A small window showing a little gas station opened at the top of his screen, and he found it difficult but not impossible to see through the gritty camera quality a woman opening the door. He grabbed his headset and put it against his ear in case there was any sound.

A younger woman outside yelled into the woman, "Hurry up, Lee! I'm starving out here!"

The woman didn't even look back, she just continued counting the money she held in her hand. She looked up, smiling at the cashier and apologizing for no apparent reason, and buying some road food. Nothing expensive, though Forest doubted there was anything good in that shabby place.

She paid for everything and even let the man keep the change. She was leaving, waving to the cashier with another smile, and opened the door so she could join her presumed friends outside.

Suddenly the cashier was yelling, and Forest had to rewind that bit and pay it slower, because he didn't catch what happened. In slow motion the man who was behind the woman reached over the counter and grabbed a fistful of lighters for some strange reason, but he did it with inhuman speed. The cashier started to yell, "Thief" loudly, but there were only the three people in the store, and the man was at the exit in about three seconds. There was no chance that he could be stopped.

The woman at the door who was outside by then was seemingly holding the door _open _for the thief, but before the man could step a foot outside she slammed it shut with such force, it hit him on the head and sent him reeling backwards to a stand of bookmarks which went tumbling down with him.

Then the screen went blank.

Forest cursed aloud and tried to mop up the ever-increasing puddle on his forehead with his sleeve. His job was certainly on the line for missing this one.

Yet as much as he didn't want to be fired, he had to tell someone.

Standing up so fast he saw stars he stumbled to the exit and threw the door open.

He already dreaded the look on Coulson's face when he explained what had happened.

* * *

"Darcy, could you get the mail?" Jane called to her intern who was lazing about on the sofa while flipping channels aimlessly. "Thanks."

Darcy sighed heavily while getting up and trudging to the door. "I'm not a slave, you know."

"That's the first time I've asked you to do anything today!" Jane walked out of her office as if the room was on fire, desperately needing a break. She opened and closed her left eye like it needed stretches to not stay closed after it was for all those hours she spent looking through her telescope.

Darcy pulled a face when Jane wasn't looking, but still she opened the door and yanking the mail out of the rusty and old box it was held in. Darcy went through them, making two piles.

"Junk, junk, bills, junk. . ." Darcy stopped, confused at the last letter, which didn't have a return address. "Hey, Lee. This one's for you."

"Who's it from?" Lea emerged from her room as well, looking tired as ever and a bit dusty from going through all of the boxes of Jane's equipment.

"It doesn't say."

"That's weird." Lea walked over and took the letter Darcy held out to her. She noticed it was very formal indeed, with a stamp that showed an eagle, and the envelope was also decorated nicely, but the decorations were morphed from the bulging of the actual letter inside. "Let's check it out."

Lea tried to tear open the letter with her hands, but eventually pulled out her exacto-knife that was stuffed in her pocket and sliced it open. She leaped back in surprise as the contents started flooding out, and there was a lot.

She bent on the floor to pick it up, but got confused. Most of the papers were blank.

Darcy bent frown as well, picking up a random paper and reading it. "Hair color, brown. Eye color, blue. Height, five foot six. This is creepy." Darcy turned over the page before setting it down. "It's all about you!"

"Creepy is right," Lea got up, putting most of the papers on the table. "Why did someone send me this?"

"It's like a government file sort of," Jane picked up her own paper and read it over. "Yeah, it kind of is. The government is supposed to know everything. Birth country, unknown. Actually, there's a lot of unknowns." Jane took a few papers and scanned though them quickly. "Almost all of them are unknowns!"

"But the government makes notes about every single person," Darcy said. "How did they miss you?"

Lea stayed silent.


	2. Lea's Lies

_When the stars were out, they rarely twinkled. _

_No, they shone. _

_ It was another beautiful Asgardian night, the nearby ocean sparkling with the Bifrost's colors and the warm breeze's scent as peaceful as the spectrum looked. The striking and powerful Asgardian palace stood mighty and proud, glimmering in a show of good even inside such a fearsome looking castle._

_The rolling meadows were so green and beautiful in the lighted dark, it almost smothered the two small children sitting in the middle._

_A small, rather ugly little girl twirled a flower between her index finger and thum, captivated by the blooming lily in her exhaustion. She tried to hide her rather exaggerated yawn from the little boy beside her, knowing he wouldn't approve of her blatant show of fatigue when he obviously felt none._

_"Why are we here?" Finally gathering enough nerve, the girl asked her partner cautiously, afraid of his reaction and reply. He could be quite temperamental. _

_The boy, who was holding a small kitchen knife in his hand, mesmerized by the way it sparkled mysteriously in the bright moonlight, didn't awknowledge her question at first. Running his pale hands along the hilt almost lovingly, the small girl knew if what he wanted was to scare her, he was doing a very good job. _

_"Must you always question me?" The boy's voice was harsh, making the little girl flinch and bow her head in shame even though to anyone else she had done nothing wrong. The little girl made a curtain with her long blond hair, cutting him off, and proceeded to twirl the flower even more in her uneasiness. _

_He saw he feeble attempt to shrink away from him, but didn't stop her. He just continued looking at the knife, and when he had memorized every stain, crevice and bump he put it down gently and stared up at the sky where the stars hung, almost covert in the blinding light of the moon, which was on the verge of being brighter than the sun._

_The small girl yawned once more, covering her mouth as tears were brought to her eyes from the shear effort of just trying to stay awake. Why did he always insist on sneaking out at night? Maybe it was because the boy's raven hair blended in with darkness, and he could find peace in a shadow unlike anyone else she had ever met._

_He could also be as cold as a winters night, which was also something to factor in._

_"You ought to be more relaxed." The boy's voice was as smooth and sly as a snake, which was an animal she often related him to. "We shall be fine in our lessons tomorrow. No one will suspect a thing."_

_"This is the third time this week. Your father will become suspicious," the girl whispered, but his acute hearing had no trouble making out her leery words. _

_"I have never been caught before, and I will not be caught now." The boy was so cocksure of himself, his partner had the wisdom to drop the subject. Instead she turned her inquiring mind to the knife that lie so casually on the slightly swaying grass. _

_"Was it necessary to bring a blade?" _

_"Yes." The boy started his reply, and she could see the gears swirling in his head. His face slowly split into a wicked grin, and her spirits plummeted, for that usually meant he had another chancy idea. "Why do you ask? Are you afraid?"_

_He reached for the knife, his eyes full of mischief as her face contorted in panic. His hand closed around the knife, and miraculously she was wide awake, scrambling to her feet and backing away. He took his time getting up, relishing her aghast look._

_"Are you scared I will hurt you with it?" The boy teased her while taking a step forwards. _

_"You have before." T__he girl recoiled from him, and suddenly the entire situation lost all amusement and the boy's face dropped. _

_"I brought it just in case we came across anything we could not handle." The boy turned to the wild and free fields just outside of his home that held dangers that his father wove into stories, scaring his two sons into not leaving the castle at night. When he turned back to the girl he looked severely wounded. "Do you not trust me, Dallea?"_

_She stiffened, unsure what to make of his sudden mood change, but with all of her heart not wanting him to feel the emotions that were vividly clear on his face. "Of course I do, Loki."_

_He did not reply at first, but after a few seconds he walked over to where she stood, and asked almost hesitantly; "Do you really mean that?"_

_"Yes," Dallea smiled, and Loki cautiously smiled back. "You're my only friend, what would I do without you?"_

_"And you're my only friend, " Loki nodded._

_They stood in companionable silence for a moment before Dallea once again broke the silence. "Do you think we could. . ." Loki fixed her with a steady gaze, but she still continued. "Possibly head back?"_

_"Sure," Loki shrugged, then right before her eyes the illusion of a wounded boy melted to show his true nature: a seasoned trickster. He grinned evilly. "But first you have to catch me."_

_Dallea was confused until he held up her green hairpin, which was missing when her hand flew up to investigate. She gasped then stomped her foot on the ground. "For Yggdrasil's sake, Loki!"_

_The boy laughed as he turned and fled, knowing full well that she had no chance of catching him, even though she broke out into a sprint to try._

_The moon and the stars suddenly warped, as if ink was spilled over the entire pristine image, and the night was replaced by the dome that had once been the place for traveling on the Bifrost. The two children melted into a giant icy tree-like structure which branched out and turned the dome blue with magic ice. _

_In front of it all, stood a tall figure with ram's horns and loathful emerald eyes, darker and more murderous than she had ever seen. She watched as his patience snapped and she went flying to the wall, and everything went black._

* * *

Lea awoke in a pool of her own sweat in the middle of the night. Her heart raced as her dream slowly ceased, and she blearily made out the time on her alarm clock on the bedside table. Two in the morning, not an ideal time to be woken, but Lea doubted she would get back to sleep even if she tried.

And she most certainly would not.

Throwing off her useless covers as claustrophobia kicked in while her terror still faded, she didn't even bother with her shoes as she stumbled to the door.

Careful not to wake Darcy or Jane, Lea crept as quietly as she could down the hall and through their tiny living room to the sagging wood porch out back.

Wincing as the back door creaked loudly on the sudden movement, she stepped outside and shivered almost immediately despite the heat of fear that ran through her veins. She closed the door noisily and sent a silent apology to her sleeping friends inside. She turned away from the house, her bare feet making an almost muted thud on the rotting wood. For a split second she feared it would collapse, but quickly realized that was the least of her problems.

Hopping off the rickety porch and onto the slightly swaying grass, just like in her dream, she didn't bother looking back at the house to see if she woke anyone due to her loud exit. Her mind was elsewhere, despite her body moving to sit on the pale ivory grass. She briefly was irritated at the reminder of how much it cost to keep grass in such a dry climate, but again her thoughts turned to more pressing problems.

The nightmares. Always ending the same way, always about her childhood. Rubbing her eyes drowsily, yet refusing even a single thought of sleep, she groaned internally. They were nothing that she could stop, nothing that she could handle, but a selfish part of her greedily kept them.

When she had made the choice to become who she was, she debated whether or not to wipe her memory, because the entire purpose of going to Midgard was to start anew, and that time not to mess up so badly, despite her fate being nothing she could control. She knew it would just be easier to cast her former self completely away, with no links whatsoever to the person she once was. It was nights like those in which she debated once more whether she should just force her former self away.

Yet she knew she couldn't do that. She knew it was going to be hard, remembering what trials she fought throught, physical and emotional, but Lea needed to have something to stand on. She needed to have a reason for abandoning her old life for this one, and those memories were exactly that.

Though that was not the only reason. The loss of her memories would also mean the loss of her loved ones. The loss of all those who she had befriended, all those who she had loved, and Lea knew remembering that was worth any nightmare that plagued her, even though she wanted to obliterate them.

Lea looked up at the sky, deep in thought. She smiled in recalling the first part of her dream, before it twisted and became a nightmare, by the same person who made the first part a dream.

Feeling ashamed of herself even though there was nothing around her, and the only unnatural light came from a dingy and flickering lamppost a bit away, Lea looked down at herself, more specifically her chest, where her heart pounded achingly at the mere thought of the one whom it belonged to.

Falling back onto the grass and spreading her arms wide on either side, she screwed her eyes shut and her face twisted into a pained expression as she remembered him falling. Falling away in pain, releasing himself from his life, his family, and her because it was clear through the look on his face as he fell that he was heartbroken.

Lea tried to fight tears as the death of him came back with such force it left her winded, leaving her with only enough breath for a heart wrenching sob she stiffled with a whimper. Desolation wrapped around her as she lay on the grass, knowing that denial will not bring him back. Knowing that he died without fully knowing how much she loved him, and knowing that he died when there was still so much to live for.

She saw his face in her head, an image she would rather die than give up. He smiled at her, something he often did while beckoning her over. His emerald eyes were so full of mystery and mischief she could not help but obey. His raven hair glinted off the sun while he started to laugh, and in her head she heard his voice.

"You ought to come around and understand thatyou will never beat me." He was taunting her, just like he always did.

"I would think that appearing behind your opponent while casting an illusion is cheating, Loki." Lea heard the exaggerated sulk in her own voice as she replied, and even in the memory she knew that she was not really angry. He knew it too.

"A key pronoun," Loki teased. "You would think."

Lea heard herself sigh, only making him laugh even more joyously.

Lea rolled onto her side as tears streamed down her face, her heart writhing in agony and her body unable to fight the sorrow any longer.

Even the happiest of memories hurt.

* * *

"She went back inside, sir."

Agent Coulson turned to the young man who spoke to him with his usual sharpness. "How long was she out there for?"

"A half an hour, sir."

Coulson nodded, letting the man - practically a boy in his eyes - know the subject was closed, but still looked over his shoulder as he spun and stared at the screen as well.

"This is the fifth time this week, sir."

"I know," Coulson replied, his mind turning over her actions in his head. According to the agent she had frequently been going outside during the night to stare at the stars, but tonight she started to bawl. It was strange, but he had not noticed to her, and basically had not taken the time to study her emotion behavior in case of a random lash, so he could not predict that this would happen.

Only realizing that they had an almost fully unknown on their hands a few days ago when that slacking idiot Forest ran out of his office, and dragged him out of an important meeting, blubbering his apologies at his mistake, Coulson was furious at first. Without a second thought Forest was fired, and he promoted a hard working agent to fill the space where that lazy slug had once been.

Coulson continued to be irritated until he realized that she had been staying with scientist Jane Foster, who had been involved with the New Mexico incident a few months ago and they had been keeping tabs on her ever since.

Still relishing in his stroke of luck, Coulson watched the screen as a figure of a woman got up and walked back to her small and crumbling house. The quality of the camera on the lamppost was bad, but it would have to do.

Especially since Coulson didn't plan on simply watching through a camera for much longer.

He knew the time was coming where he would have a chat with the woman who literally came out of no where.

"If she does anything unusual, alert me immediately, understood?" Coulson asked.

"Yes sir." The agent's reply came immediately, reassuring Coulson as he made his leave.

"Excellent." Entering the hallway, he wasted no time stopping a lone agent. "Ready a jet headed for Nevada."

The curiosity was clear in her eyes, but lucky for her job's sake she kept her inquiries to herself. "Right away, sir."

"And make sure to tell Director Fury that I'm going to have a chat with our unknown."

* * *

The next morning was vexingly bright and happy, at least to Lea, whose mood was a polar opposite of the weather.

She emerged from her room at around ten, which was a first for her. Usually she was awake and working by six, much to Darcy's horror.

"Mornin' Sunshine," Darcy called from her place on the couch, her bare feet propped up on the coffee table that was littered with the papers that were sent to Lea. The intern had no where to be that day - which was a first - so she had neglected to change from her ice blue pajamas that hurt Lea's eyes as she turned to glare at her friend.

Lea chose to ignore her instead of starting an argument that would no doubt lead her into an even worse mood, so instead she grabbed a discarded bowl filled with cereal and poured some milk into it. Lea knew it was probably Jane's before the scientist got sidetracked, and she often did feel like food was not a necessity of life, and she should probably go and force feed her like every morning, but instead sat on the table that was cleared with a sweep of her arm.

Darcy cocked a brow at her neat freak friend who had just sent important papers cascading to the floor. "Lemme guess, did the bed bugs bite?"

Still ignoring Darcy, Lea glared at the wall as if it was the reason she was in such a horrid mood.

"Rude." Darcy exclaimed, but sensed that Lea was not herself that day and decided to go back to flipping channels aimlessly.

After Lea was done her breakfast she sauntered back into her room, leaving Darcy alone with the television, which was awesome in her opinion. Jane was busy with something that was so important she had to skip breakfast again to attend to, and Lea obviously was not going to try and take her out for the day like she sometimes did as a treat, so she could watch Doctor Who in peace.

A few hours later, during another marathon of the Vampire Diaries, there was a loud knock at the door which after a few minutes of insistent rapping, Darcy finally answered.

"Hello?" Darcy's irritable tone turned dark as she realized who was standing in front of her. "You again? No. You're not taking our stuff."

It was a bold move, but Darcy started to close the door right in his face, yet the middle aged man standing before her pushed it open again with a forced smile. He was not in any mood to put up with this rude intern. "I assure you I am not here to take your stuff. Will you let me come in?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"No."

Darcy begrudgingly opened the door for the man, who looked out of place in his sharp suit while standing in their small and dingy home. Leading him to the living room, she first snatched her IPod protectively and gave the man a glance, as if checking to see if he was going to swipe it again, then hollered to Jane and Lea that they had company.

Jane came out first, and her reaction was similar to Darcy's. "Oh no, not you again."

Lea joined them in the hall, her mousy brown hair pulled out of her face and inquisitive blue eyes inspected the agent who was looking straight at her in her living room. Luckily she had cleaned up considerably since Darcy had last seen her, and her mood seemed to have improved.

"Hello, you must be Leah." The man stuck out a hand, and she hesitantly shook it. He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes, and suddenly she was wary.

"Yeah," Lea nodded, trying to seem friendly, but a trace of caution was heard in her tone. "And you are?"

"Agent Phil Coulson."

Oh no.

This was bad.

Had they found her already?

"No worries, I'm just here to talk." Lea would give it to the agent, he was good at masking his emotions, but it was clear that he meant to do a bit more than talking from his partner in the passenger seat in his shiny black car parked out front. "Shall we sit?"

No, Lea thought, but she was even better at hiding her true feelings. Smiling slightly and gesturing to the couch where Darcy had been sitting on with a hand while taking a seat in the chair opposite, and everyone took their place.

Darcy was in another chair and Jane had decided to pull up a dining chair from the small dining table than was in another section of the room. Then it became awkward.

They sat in silence for what seemed like forever, then finally the agent spoke.

"So, Lea, tell me about yourself."

Lea smiled, stalling for time. "Oh, I'm not that interesting."

Coulson smiled, but again it didn't reach his eyes. "I'm a patient listener."

"I'm not a very good storyteller."

It was obvious Coulson was starting to get irritated. "We have time."

Lea grasped for straws while struggling to piece together a convincing story that would make them leave her alone, but she doubted that would happen. She shifted as if uncomfortable, and saw his patience wearing thin.

"Well?"

"It's embarrassing," Lea lied misreably. Being dishonest and lying was always something she struggled with, so before the man snapped she decided to tell sort of the truth. "My mother was a gambler and was constantly moving from realm to - ahem - place to place."

Coulson raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"She was in such a deep debt, she even tried to sell me to a man so he would forget about it." Lea knew she was twisting her own truth, but the lie wasn't spotted for once as she bitterly spun her false tale.

"What was her name?"

Coulson was being almost too forward with his investigation, but Lea was under too much stress as not only his cold gaze, but also the curious looks of her friends bore into her.

"Jan-" Lea bit her tongue. Jania was not a Midgardian name. "-et. Janet. Her name was Janet."

"What about your father?"

Coulson had realized he had the upper hand, from the way she wiped sweat from her forehead constantly and fidgeted like she was sitting on a bomb, so he grew careless.

"He-he died before I was born."

"What was his name?"

Lea felt as if a hammer had struck her skull. She honestly had no clue. After realizing what he had done, she had decided he was not worth the effort of looking into. She thought fast. "Um, Carl."

Carl. The name of their neighbor. She wanted to hit her head off of a wall.

It was obvious in her expression that everything she had just said was a complete and utter lie, but instead of looking angry, Coulson just nodded and stood up dutifully.

Lea was confused.

"Alright. I must be going. It was nice talking to you, Lea." Coulson nodded to her and got up and left.

Lea sat in shock, unable to believe she let him just get up and left. He had not said, "It was nice meeting you." He knew it was a lie, but to be frank, a deaf llama could have told that she was lying. He obviously had a plan to come back.

Lea couldn't believe how much worse she just made everything.

And it struck the most when her friends gave her a look of betrayal before leaving as well, letting her sit alone in sorrowful silence that she could banish.

* * *

**I'm actually so ecstatic how many people are interested in this! I'm so happy, you guys have no idea.**

**A warning: I may or may not be able to respond to all of your wonderful reviews because even though once upon a time I had loads of time, I'm lacking it now. Just know I think you're all amazing.**

**Sorry if this chapter was a let down. *Starts crawling away sadly while crying* **

**Stay awesome, yes you, the one who actually read this.**

**~Lialioya**


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